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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22909900">Epiphany</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blushing_Tomato/pseuds/Blushing_Tomato'>Blushing_Tomato</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Vermilion Oath (Enstars Edo era AU) [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Edo Era, Forbidden Love, Keito is the shogun, M/M, Non-mutual romance, Romance, Wataru is a actor, play</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:48:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>916</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22909900</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blushing_Tomato/pseuds/Blushing_Tomato</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>For the first time since he started performing, Wataru is nervous.<br/>He hopes his feelings will reach him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hasumi Keito/Hibiki Wataru</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Vermilion Oath (Enstars Edo era AU) [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1467844</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Epiphany</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm finally adding something on this au after letting it on hiatus for more than 6 months... But my life has been hectic since I started uni, hope you accept my apology.<br/>I know this is only a small one-shot but I had this idea since I started working on this au... Did I say that I LOVE Watakei? it's really good.<br/>Though I think I'm a bit mean with Wataru on that one, sorry sweetie. :(<br/>Anyways hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He was standing alone on the stage, and soon his feet would be sweeping the wooden floor with divine elegance.</p><p>It was a recurrence for Wataru Hibiki, but surprisingly, today was special. Never before he felt his heart twisting with a hint of nervousness, something that was in fact completely new to him regarding his natural talent. A talent that made acting something that seemed as simple as breathing. For the first time, he was truly feeling the hundreds of stares around him, impatiently waiting for the show to start at last. With his eyes closed, he tried to draw a quiet breath to uneven his heartbeat.</p><p>The outfit was heavy on his body, and a part of him felt naked without a mask on, a rare thing to happen. They said his natural beauty and almost feminine facial shape would be way better than putting a mask like very often.</p><p>Wataru didn’t want to open his eyes yet, but the sound of the shamisen started and he couldn’t avoid the sight anymore. After one last prayer of success, his amethyst eyes were finally visible and he started moving. Very slowly. He turned, his silky hair following him like it was drawing a curtain around him, hiding him in a sort of mystical fog, and he started singing in an eerie voice.</p><p>Despite everything, a part of him couldn’t help but smile. The art of <em>noh</em> was something he mastered with ease and yet it wasn’t a thing he was particularly fond of. He thought it was boring, too plain and simply not entertaining at all. And yet, he practiced this play from hours to months, just to achieve the goal he had set to himself, that privilege he always dreamt to get.</p><p>And here he was, in front of the most important people of his country, dancing, singing and telling a heartbreaking story. After years of devoting himself to acting, he was finally known as the most praised actor of Japan.</p><p>But his heart ached. Once facing the audience again, he finally stole a glance at the man that made everything worth it in the end. The reason he was dancing here, in Edo, today. And still…</p><p>Wataru was acting as a woman who had lost the man she loved endlessly, the man who went with another. He had to convey her sorrow and heartbreak; The narrator on the side was the witness of such tragedy.</p><p>Pretty ironic and fitting, he had to admit to himself.</p><p>What a tragic fate but to love the man he could never reach. Yet he was standing only a few feet away from him. Wataru just had to step out the stage, walk a few steps and he could touch him. A thought that would forever remain a dreamy desire.</p><p>But he wanted to impress him. The actor wanted to do his best, to take his breath away, to give everything, to convey every emotion he felt through his character and to make the whole audience feel it with him. He, at least, wanted that the most powerful man of Japan he was aching for would notice him, would make him somewhat worthy of his splendor.</p><p>He looked at him again, and his heart beat faster, finally basking in his royal beauty, absolutely regal in an outfit suited for him only.</p><p>But of course, a romance with a shogun was pure fantasy, a forbidden love you could only see in plays.</p><p>Wataru hoped that Keito Hasumi would find him at least beautiful or a bit attractive.</p><p>Soon, he was the only person he could see and think about, lost in a beautiful realm. He kept dancing and kept singing in a sort of mechanical trance that nobody seemed to realize. However, he knew it wasn’t real and his pained heart was there to remind him of the painful truth that none of this was a reality.</p><p>Too much was separating the both of them, and Wataru knew the man would never see him as something more than a simple actor with a gifted talent for it. He looked at him again, to make sure this would be totally hopeless, and saw something painfully familiar in those way too beautiful green eyes.</p><p>That look told everything, and now he had to tell himself that it was no use. His love would never reach him. Now Wataru and his character were sharing the same fate, and he could envision the sorrowful death of the woman clearly. Time flew by, it was almost the end of the story.</p><p>Soon, Wataru would be leaving such a beautiful sight, would probably never see him again, and he told himself it was for the better. He chose the wrong side from the beginning, and now he paid the price for it.</p><p>He rose his arms in the air, chanting his last sentence, the last breath of the character, and his heart broke along with the death he was acting on stage.</p><p>Wataru slowly kneeled down, looking at the ceiling above him, asking the gods why they were so mean to him. In his last note, he almost shed a tear, looked one last time at the crowd, looked one last time at the unreachable man his heart burned for, and gracefully laid on the floor.</p><p>He closed his eyes, and it was the end. Wataru couldn’t hear the cheers he received, because they didn’t mean anything.</p><p>If it wasn’t for Keito, everything else was worthless.  </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you want to know more about Noh theatre! -&gt; https://www.britannica.com/art/Noh-theatre<br/>Please leave a kudo or a comment if you liked it! :D</p></blockquote></div></div>
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